3 hurt in house fire

STOCKTON - A fire punctuated by exploding oxygen tanks gutted a single-family house in south Stockton on Monday afternoon.

Zachary K. Johnson

STOCKTON - A fire punctuated by exploding oxygen tanks gutted a single-family house in south Stockton on Monday afternoon.

Water still trickled in a gaping hole in the house's roof as the Stockton Fire Department investigated what caused the fire in the 3300 block of Phelps Street, but firefighters were proceeding carefully because of the previous explosions.

Three people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, according to the Stockton Fire Department.

But when the fire was reported about 1:30 p.m., it wasn't clear that everybody inside the house had made it out. The explosions didn't stop firefighters from sweeping the house and extinguishing the fire, and the tanks didn't stop a neighbor from helping bring one of the residents to safety.

"It was great. A very courageous guy," said Selena Gilbert, who came out into the street after the fire started. "I saw him running with (one of the residents) on his shoulder."

Andres C. Andrade, 21, went up to the burning house and saw one of the residents, "Otis," who had made it into the backyard. Andrade said he backed up at the first explosion, before going up and grabbing Otis, who had inhaled a lot of smoke and needed help to get away from the burning house, Andrade said. "We're neighbors out here, and we've got to help each other out."

Samuel Richardson, 62, also lived in the house but was at the store when the fire started. "I wasn't gone five minutes."

He said one of his brothers who lives in the house has emphysema and there could have been as many as 10 oxygen tanks in the house.

Dejon Underdue, 31, was one of the people gathered outside the house as firefighters were mopping up.

"It's torched," Underdue said of his childhood home, where his family still lived.

He was carrying a wet and slightly-charred cardboard box that had been salvaged from the fire. Inside were the remains of his uncle Jesse Richardson.